Out of the spotlight: The rights of foreigners and minorities are still a grey area and sexual exploitation had in fact been held in Amygdaleza under deportation orders but was released and placed in a special hostel when an adult inmate alerted the local representatives of Mèdecins sans Frontières to her pregnancy. 59 In light of Amnesty International’s opposition to the detention of unaccompanied minors, the absence of any attempts by the authorities to protect this minor, who was in a particularly vulnerable state, is doubly worrying. The organization has no information about whether an investigation into the circumstances that led to this unlawful detention has been launched. In addition to its concerns about minors held at Amygdaleza, the organization has also received allegations that some of the male guards in that detention centre may have engaged in practices that violate rules regarding the treatment of prisoners. In particular, the organization received allegations that within the past year, male guards at the centre have entered the women’s dormitory rooms at night, offered alcohol to detainees and demanded sexual favours.60 The organization has not been informed as to whether any investigations into these allegations were initiated. In March 2005 a number of local human rights NGOs staged a demonstration outside the centre and called for the centre’s closure due to further allegations of detainees’ ill-treatment including overcrowding, lack of facilities, beatings by police officers and rape. The organization calls on the authorities to investigate them in a through, prompt, and impartial manner that will ensure that if the allegations are substantiated, the perpetrators will be brought to justice and the victims of these violations will be granted full reparation. 33 The organization is additionally concerned about the provisions available at the centre for children who are detained in the women’s dormitory rooms along with their mothers. Amnesty International considers the detention of vulnerable people, and in particular women with their children, unnecessary and should only take place as a measure of last resort.61 2.3 Failure to protect victims of trafficking Some of the cases outlined above also raise concerns about another aspect of the state’s failure to protect the rights of another particularly vulnerable group of migrants: women and children who are victims of trafficking. In fact, a number of reports received in the last few years claim that a large proportion of the women detainees at Amygdaleza are victims of trafficking. In two cases, the organization has learnt that victims were detained even after they had testified against their traffickers and while judicial proceedings were underway and these were mentioned in its briefing to the UN Human Rights Committee in February 2005. Amnesty International has welcomed new legislation to combat trafficking of human beings and forced prostitution (“economic exploitation of sexual life”) (Law 3064/2002), which introduced provisions for the protection of victims willing to testify during the trial. However, the organization remained concerned about the way in which such protection is ensured. In particular, the organization made reference to four cases in which victims of trafficking and rape (Olga B., Gina M., Kamelia P., and Tatiana A. 62 ) have not been accorded state protection during the trial proceedings against the traffickers, despite having received a 59 Takis Kampylis, “ [Objections]”, Ta Nea, 10 July 2004 60 Similar claims had been made in previous months by a former detainee in a report prepared for the national television network NET (Kouvaras, Transit, broadcast on NET on 16 November 2004). Amnesty International 5 October 2005 61 United Kingdom: Seeking Asylum is Not a Crime: Detention of People who Have Sought Asylum, AI Index: EUR 45/015/2005. 62 These details of the victims have been widely publicized in the national press. AI Index: EUR 25/016/2005